KXLY wins national award for Coeur d'Alene firefighter fundraiser
A KXLY fundraiser raised $32,400 for the families of John Morrison, Frank Harwood and David Tysdal, and that local response won national recognition in Washington, D.C.
The families of two Coeur d’Alene firefighters killed in the Canfield Mountain ambush, and the firefighter who survived with severe injuries, were the center of a fundraiser that raised $32,400 and carried KXLY Radio Group all the way to a national stage in Washington, D.C. Morgan Murphy Media accepted a Service to America Award on June 9 at The Anthem for the Honor Our Fallen campaign, a recognition that put Kootenai County’s grief and its response in front of the country.
The fundraiser was built around the June 29, 2025, attack on Canfield Mountain, when firefighters responding to an intentionally set brush fire were ambushed. Battalion Chief John Morrison, 52, of the Coeur d’Alene Fire Department, and Battalion Chief Frank Harwood, 42, of Kootenai County Fire & Rescue, were killed. Firefighter and engineer David Tysdal was seriously wounded.
KXLY Radio Group’s special Honor the Fallen broadcast and radiothon brought in the money for immediate and long-term support for the three families, including a $5,000 contribution from Morgan Murphy Media itself. The effort was coordinated with the Red and Blue Foundation, which works with first responders and their families in crisis, and it became one piece of a much wider outpouring that reached beyond the station’s own listeners.
Community members, businesses and fire-service organizations across northern Idaho also mobilized donations after the attack. The International Association of Fire Fighters listed memorial funds for Morrison and Harwood, support for Tysdal, and information tied to July 10-11, 2025 celebrations of life in Coeur d’Alene. That broader response helped turn a local tragedy into a countywide act of support.
Morgan Murphy Media vice president of radio Tery Garras said the response showed why local radio matters, and credited Red and Blue Foundation’s Scott Rusk and KXLY’s Casey Jordan for organizing the effort. The national award recognized the campaign, but in Kootenai County the larger story was what happened next: neighbors, departments and businesses stepping in when two firefighters were buried and a third was left fighting to recover.
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